Those nice folk at the Mac Observers Mac Geek Gab have linked to my blog post about changing the keymap on a Mac.

I took a screen grab of the hit counter earlier today, and I’ll check it out again in a day or so.

It could just be that instead of talking to myself on here I might get some actual followers.

WooHoo!

(Don’t get caught!)

Rumours are everywhere, Apple is going to release a new product at the end of January.

So here is my guess, based on the rumours.

Apple will hold a launch event on 26 January 2010.

The new product will be a tablet device. (iSlate, iTablet)
10 inch screen, touch interface.
WiFi and 3G enabled.
Forward facing camera for video conferencing.
USB and Mini Display Port.
Flash memory storage.
Bluetooth with connectivity for wireless keyboard and mouse.
Landscape or Portrait view selected by rotating the device.
Full version of OS X.

In other words a hybrid MacBook come iPhone.

My reasoning? 10 inch screen is bigger than an iPhone but does not impact on the established MacBook 13 inch range.
Connectivity so it’s useable like a netbook.
Full version of the OS so it has more functionality than the phone.

Shoot me down in flames in January when all we get is an iPod Touch with a camera…

Here is screen grab of my dock, click it to get a bigger picture.

Here is what I use, from left to right:

Finder: We all have one of these.
Safari: The standard Mac browser.
Firefox: Alternative browser.
Camino: The alternative to the alternative browser.
Mailplane: Gmail made easy.
Tweetie: Twitter client.
Syrinx: Another Twitter client. I just need two OK?
Skype: VOIP free calls over the ‘net.
NetNewsWire: RSS feed, feed my addiction to news and blogs.
MarsEdit: Blogging app, easier than the WordPress interface.
Smultron: Text editor.
Address Book: My contacts.
iCal: I don’t actually use it but it tells me the date!
Preview: For looking at stuff.
Pages: Word processing and more.
Numbers: Spreadsheet.
ImageWell: Quick and easy picture manipulation.
Photoshop: Slow and complex picture manipulation.
iTunes: Music and video.
Microsoft RDC: Walk on the dark side with remote access to Windows servers.
Jiggler: Wiggles the mouse every few minutes, keeps RDC alive when it’s not in use.
System Preferences: Tinker with Mac settings.
Grab: Screen Grab.
Space: We all need personal space…
Home folder: My stuff.
Quicklinks folder: Shortcuts to stuff I use all the time.
Business Folder: Business stuff.
Applications: My apps.
Trash: For stuff I don’t need.

Apple launched some new products yesterday.

A gorgeous looking new range of the iMac, with superb high definition screens. The MacBook laptop gets a makeover and looks really nice. The Mac Mini gets a speed boost and now they do a server version. (I have had three Mac Minis, a firm favourite of mine.)

And a mouse.
What can I say? Apple can’t make pointing devices. I have a Mighty Mouse, it sucks. I HATE it. It does not click correctly, the scroll feature keeps clogging up and jamming, the side buttons are useless, IT’S RUBBISH APPLE!

The new mouse looks like it they put a Mighty Mouse and trackpad in a box and allowed them to breed. The result looks like the worst of both devices.

It’s really easy Apple:-

Go to PC World, pick up a cheap £10 mouse.
Take to the design labs and copy it.
Make it white plastic.
Don’t do anything else to it, less is more with a mouse.

OR

Farm out your rodent production to Logitech.

Apple Mac computers have a few quirks, one of the more annoying ones is the absence of a hash # key on the standard British keyboard. Hash does exists but you have to play a two finger chord on the keyboard to get to it. ALT and 3.

This really p*ss*s me off as a lot of programming requires the # all the time.

When I bought my new MacBook Pro I decided to fix the problem and wrote a new keymap for it. I have taken the § key, top left of the keyboard and remapped it to give me a #.

Instructions:

Download this file: piper.keylayout RIGHT click it and select save…

Open Finder and navigate to:

Macintosh HD/Library/Keyboard layout/

Put the Piper file in here.

Open System Preferences, go to International. Select the Input Tab. Find the Piper file in the list of Languages and select it. At the bottom of the page check the ‘Show input menu in menu bar’.

Shut System Preferences. On the Menu bar click the British Flag. Check the Piper option. # should now be on the § key and vice versa.

Simple!

UPDATE: I had a request for a keyboard layout that puts a € Euro symbol on the § button so here you are:

Download this file: euro.keylayout RIGHT click it and select save…

UPDATE: The Mac Geeb Gab have linked here so if you are after creating your own keymap use the Ukelele application linked to here.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!